Life in an architecture school can be described as an evolution. The evolution of understanding, learning, and loving to shape the spaces we inhabit, and a process of finding happiness and humor in bleak times. One wouldn’t realize this until one graduates and joins the field. If asked from a student of architecture about his/her experiences, one would hardly get a positive response. Some students say that “educating oneself in a course like architecture is directly proportional to entering in a land of the marsh.” Some describe architecture as an arranged marriage, a lifetime commitment, and a NO WAY OUT policy. It is tied up based on one character (might be for your love of sketching, or because the buildings you see and the environment around it fascinates you), only to realize that a single character might not be sufficient for sustaining the responsibility. But like everything, architecture also consists of two sides, one of which might not exactly be a luxury to attend to, but can always be referred to as a collection of amusing anecdotes.
After recently graduating, it is evident that an architecture student not only develops his skills and interests in designing a better environment for humans but acknowledges the nature of people around in their various forms. The experiences with one’s guides/jurors, classmates, senior colleagues, or clients are “epitome of entertainment” because everyone has something peculiar and remembering to offer.
The factors binding the fraternity into reminiscing these times might be innumerable. It can be the lousy sleeping schedule one acquires or the habit of attending a lecture to seize enough attendance by the end of the semester. Sometimes what makes a particular talk interesting is that one classmate asks silly questions during sessions, making them a little more amusing and less intolerable. Running through a pergola on a rainy day with an umbrella, not to cover oneself, but rather cover the handmade models and design sheets might seem to be a regular thing to other people. Still, only an architecture student can understand the actual value since their heart and soul lie in that work. One truly retrospect’s the little priceless and whimsical moments from such encounters.
Such subtle yet laughable moments are rare, but these are what make the college life wholesome. Sometimes during a building material and construction studio, when a friend either forgets or is too lazy to complete drafting an entire sheet (because it’s a worldwide phenomenon that drafting is the most tedious jobs of all, and anyone would sit on a laptop all day, rather than breaking their backs to excel a submission), they borrow the work of their friends, just for the sake of submitting. Well, we all know how hilarious this small incident transforms when the one who borrowed excels in their work, but the friend who did it is given a REDO.
Redo’s are the worst nightmares for every architecture student. Still, looking back at the time, one surely realizes that getting many chances to excel in an exercise is a one-time opportunity that one hardly gets after graduating.
Other than redo’s, the other form of a nightmare for any architecture student is that he/she has to pull several all-nighters to complete the upcoming jury’s requirements. Sleep is a luxury that architecture students are unable to afford, ever.
But an all-nighter gets interesting when there are a group of friends working together because it is during an all-nighter that you see everyone’s actual personalities blossoming.
– For instance, we all have a robot buddy, who, from the start of the night to finish, is glued to their workstation, running their fingers and typing in commands relentlessly. They only get up either for a bathroom or a tea break. These out shiners can work for more than 10 hours straight, without any respite.
– There is always a friend who has little to no work at the start of the night and is amongst the group of people who hardly worry about completing the submissions because, magically, they finish their set of drawings until the time of submission. Their secret, well, no one knows.
– There is one person in the room who is referred to as the “cry baby.” These people always tend to cry, worrying about how they would complete their submission on time, every half an hour or so, and end up with almost all the work done, sometimes even before the other members finish off.
– An idealist kid is always present, who, even after producing amazing work as visible to the human eye, is not satisfied with the outcome, and works all night to make sure things look good.
At times, this person might take the high ground, help others accomplish their goals. They can also become a little selfish at times, and take that goodnight’s sleep when required.
With people of such distinctive personalities around, a culture brews which every architecture student goes through their journeys, a culture that helps them become a little whimsical, but wiser. These are the memories where you suffer and bruise, but never forget.
